1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic mail apparatus that manages the addresses of destinations of electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as “e-mail”) and automatically judges a name and transmission method for each destination at the time of transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
E-mail is a conventional method for communication between information processing apparatuses connected to a network. Personal computers and the like are used for transmitting and receiving e-mails (i.e., e-mail apparatuses). In transmitting an e-mail message, it is necessary to write the address of a destination in the e-mail message to be transmitted. A user may input an address through a keyboard in generating an e-mail message to be transmitted. However, in the case of a destination to which a user frequently transmits e-mail messages, not only it is a heavy load for the user to input the e-mail address of the destination in generating each e-mail message to be transmitted, but also it is impossible to prevent a transmission error due to erroneous input of the address.
In view of the above, conventional e-mail apparatuses have a function of registering destination information (such as in a destination table). In the destination table, the addresses and names of destinations are correlated with each other, and thereby upon designating a destination from among the registered destinations, the address of the designated destination is automatically added to an e-mail to be transmitted.
Recently, a generated e-mail, however, is often transmitted to a plurality of destinations, and accordingly e-mail apparatuses in which destinations of e-mail are managed in groups have been mainstreamed. An e-mail apparatus in which destinations of an e-mail are managed in groups is provided with the above-mentioned destination table. Additionally, a group table stores a group identification name and a plurality of destination names registered in the destination table. By designating a group of destinations of an e-mail message, the address of every destination which is registered as a member of the designated group is added to an e-mail and the e-mail message is transmitted to every destination.
Further, the following e-mail apparatuses have been proposed.
(1) An apparatus, disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 5-219103 (1993), shows destinations of e-mail being managed in groups. Registrants of a group are classified, based on exclusion information that is set before transmitting an e-mail message, into ones to whom the e-mail message needs to be transmitted and ones to whom the e-mail message need not be transmitted. The e-mail message is transmitted to only the registrants to whom it needs to be transmitted (i.e., the e-mail is not transmitted to the registrants to whom it need not be transmitted).
(2) An apparatus, disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A8-316983 (1996), shows a function of registering a table in which keywords and destinations are correlated with each other. A person to whom an e-mail message needs to be transmitted is determined automatically based on a keyword that is included in the e-mail message, and the e-mail message is transmitted to the person thus determined.
(3) An apparatus, disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 11-212884 (1999), shows an e-mail message with an attachment file is transmitted to a particular destination among a plurality of destinations to whom the e-mail message needs to be transmitted.
In the apparatus (1), however, since exclusion information is input by a user, the exclusion information cannot be prevented from being erroneously inputted by a user. Accordingly the apparatus has a high possibility to transmit an e-mail message to a person to whom it need not be transmitted or to fail to transmit the e-mail message to a person to whom it needs to be transmitted. There is another problem that since a user needs to input exclusion information, the apparatus needs relatively high expenditures of time and labor in e-mail transmission and is inferior in operability.
In the apparatus (2), since the destination of an e-mail message is determined based on a keyword that is included in the e-mail message, a user needs to generate an e-mail message in consideration of the destination. As a result, more time and labor are needed to generate the e-mail message.
In the apparatus (3), a user specifies, for each person, whether to add an attachment file. Therefore, the apparatus has a high possibility to transmit, due to an erroneous specification, an attachment file to a person to whom it need not be transmitted or to fail to transmit the attachment file to a person to whom it needs to be transmitted. There is another problem that since a user needs to specify, for each person, whether to add an attachment file, the apparatus needs relatively high expenditures of time and labor in e-mail transmission and is inferior in operability.